The following is taken directly from Columbia.edu.

A fascinating and potentially very important study has recently come out in the journal Science.

The study reports on the discovery that 68% of patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) carry the XMRV virus as compared to 3.7% of those without CFS.

Further work reported in the New York Times indicates that the virus has been found in 98% of patients with CFS. The discovery of this retrovirus, if confirmed by other research groups, suggests that this virus is either the cause or an important secondary factor in CFS.

This finding has implications for Lyme research as it is possible that patients who carry this virus when co-infected with Lyme go on to have persistent symptoms because: a) of activation of the latent virus; b) infection with Lyme or another tick-borne disease lowers the immune surveillance making the individual more susceptible to “catch” the virus; or c) the presence of the virus and the spirochete together act synergistically to induce an array of illness symptoms or to prevent eradication or control of either organism.

In any case, given that the symptoms of CFS are so similar to the symptoms of patients with chronic persistent Lyme symptoms, especially shared problems with fatigue and cognition, research in this area may shed important light on the mechanisms underlying the perpetuation of chronic symptoms. In terms of treatment, if this virus is thought to be causal, then retroviral treatments that are used for treating HIV may be very helpful for patients with chronic persistent symptoms.

NOTE:  If you suffer from neurocognitive and/or neuropsychiatric symptoms which may be due to Lyme or another tick-borne disease, please consider coming for the two-day, outpatient, second-opinion evaluation at the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Evaluation Service.  For further information, please contact Dr. Kathy Corbera at (212) 543-6508.  Inasmuch as the evaluation is comprehensive and a limited number of patients can be seen each week to accommodate the large volume of requests for appointments, it might be several weeks before your telephone call is returned to set up your appointment.  There is a waiting list.  We appreciate your patience.

Antibiotics have been hailed as the super cure in their vaulted past, but over the years, as people have begun to die and suffer terrible side effects due to over-use, and still others who become sick from even a small amount of antibiotics, there is a new wave of bad publicity towards antibiotics, rightly so when taken casually.

But for those of us with chronic Lyme disease, the risks involved with taking antibiotics - for years even- are absolutely worth it.  Many will admit to thinking that death is not a punishment compared to the hell we live with each day.

To better understand  how antibiotics work it helps to learn about the mechanism of the action they employ. Generally speaking, antibiotics fall into two categories:

• Bactericidal-An agent that directly destroys bacteria.
• Bacteriostatic - An agent that arrests or hinders the growth of bacteria.

Antibiotics that are bactericidal (for example, think… homicidal) can directly attack the cell wall of the bacteria. This causes a rupture and the death of the organism follows. Antibiotics from the penicillin family of antibiotics are usually bactericidal, unless concentrations fall too low.

Antibiotics that are bacteriostatic (for example, think… manipulative) do not directly attack bacteria. Instead, they interfere with the ability of the organism to reproduce. Without the ability to reproduce the bacteria can eventually die out.

Bacteriostatic antibiotics include tetracyclines such as Doxycycline. It is important to remember that most antibiotics can be both bactericidal and bacteriostatic, depending upon the amount or concentration of the antibiotic in the body. More clearly still, most bacteriostatic antibiotics can become bactericidal if the concentrations are strong enough.

One of the main points to understand about bacteriostatic antibiotics is that they are usually effective in debilitating bacteria only when bacteria reproduce.

This is significant for two reasons.

First, it is believed that dormant Lyme bacteria don’t reproduce, which diminishes bacteriostatic antibiotic’s effectiveness in fighting Lyme disease.

Second, Lyme bacteria have a long reproductive cycle. A mature Lyme bacterium reproduces once every 7 hours or so. This reproductive cycle may vary from species to species. In comparison, some species of the strep throat bacterium reproduce once every 20 to 30 minutes. It is not known how many reproductive cycles are needed before all Lyme bacteria are debilitated by antibiotics.

However, according to Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner in her book, “Everything You Need To Know About Lyme Disease”, the strep bacterium is normally treated with antibiotics through 480 reproductive cycles.

She says that if we were to treat Lyme disease through the same number of cycles it would take somewhere between 5 to 30 months of antibiotic therapy. If this is true, it is significant that some physicians follow a protocol for treating Lyme disease that allows just two to six weeks of antibiotic therapy. Based on the above scenario this may be inadequate.

If either of the above examples are true, this may mean that physicians who are acting in good faith by using conservative treatment protocols may actually be prolonging and thus complicating Lyme infection in their patients. However, much of this theory is speculative. Obviously, more research is needed.

Lyme physicians take all of this relatively new knowledge about bacterial biology into account when deciding which antibiotic, or combination of antibiotics to prescribe.

The above scenario suggests that, depending upon dosage, some classes of antibiotics such as penicillins and cephalosporins may not be able to eradicate Lyme bacteria from the body because they circulate mainly in the body’s fluids and are incapable of entering cells where the Bb organism can reside.

If true, this contradicts many current conservative antibiotic protocols for Lyme disease.

The good news is that other classes of antibiotics, such as macrolides (azithromycins such as Zithromax) are prescribed specifically to attack the Bb bacteria that may become established within the body’s cells, along with killing Lyme bacteria residing outside the cells in deep tissue areas of the body.

It is important to recognize that this is a case in point where a shotgun approach to antibiotic therapy may be an effective tool in fighting Lyme disease.

For example, a physician may prescribe a penicillin such as Amoxicillin, along with a macrolide such as Zithromax. The Amoxicillin stays mostly in the body’s fluids and blood stream. Meanwhile, Zithromax not only penetrates the cell wall where the Bb organism is residing (and/or hiding), but it also penetrates deep tissue areas, which Lyme bacteria also inhabit. When Lyme bacteria move to deep tissue areas they have effectively moved away from normal blood flow and away from fluid-based antibiotics. Antibiotics such as Zithromax can help to counter this survival tactic.

Also, Amoxicillin is mainly bactericidal (remember, think… homicidal), which means that it directly kills the Bb organism. Zithromax is a macrolide, which means that it can either be bactericidal or bacteriostatic (think… manipulative) depending upon concentration levels.

By prescribing these two antibiotics, physicians hope to increase the opportunities for killing as many bacteria as possible, and affecting Lyme bacteria in numerous and complex ways. And of course many doctors disagree on combinations and length of treatment - especially given the potential of significant health hazards and potentially lethal side effects.

Even though physicians can out-maneuver some of the Lyme bacterium’s survival tactics-such as using combinations of antibiotics-there are those who believe that antibiotics probably cannot eliminate the Bb organism if it is in a dormant state. Again, if this is true, it has serious consequences for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic, persistent symptoms.

Specifically, this means that conservative treatment protocols, which call for short-term courses of antibiotics, may actually prolong some cases of Lyme infection. If chronic Lyme symptoms are the result of an active, late-stage Lyme infection, any delay in full and comprehensive antibiotic treatment may have devastating results for the Lyme patient.

It is easy to understand from the above facts and figures how many patients would get impatient to feel betters, and consequently try some conservative  ”alternative” protocols, and some outlandish “alternative” protocols: both in addition to antibiotics or instead of antibiotics.

There is emerging evidence that certain antibiotics may be more readily incorporated into the cell wall of the bacteria itself in the presence of elevated oxygen tension, which is an environment similar to that created in the body during Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy (HBOT).

If true, this is a clear example of HBOT working in a synergistic manner with antibiotic therapy. In other words, the effectiveness of antibiotics to kill the Lyme organism is increased through the use of HBOT.

Research is currently being conducted that may indicate that the Bb organism can be killed by oxygen free radicals. Oxygen free radicals are produced during HBOT. The deeper the depth of treatment, the greater the number of free radicals produced. It is believed by many that oxygen free radicals have an antibiotic-like effect.

Finally, it is well understood that HBOT can enhance certain aspects of the body’s natural immune system. This may play a significant and positive role for Lyme patients because their immune systems have probably been compromised over a long period of time as a result of persistent symptoms.

“Lyme Times” the magazine published by the California Lyme Association, wrote extensively about alternative treatments (in a back issue) and concluded emphatically that antibiotics are the key to a permanent cure for chronic Lyme disease.

I think I will re-evaluate the many supplements I take, but I feel strangely comforted that although I try most every alternative protocol, I have never stopped my antibiotic treatments - just variations and pulsing.

I am finally feeling really good for longer periods of time…so can you tell me if it is the antibiotics, the alternative protocols or both?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) has many scientists and researchers looking at the possibility of using oxygen, either as a stand-alone treatment or as a combination treatment to be used with combination of different antibiotics.

Dr. William Fife, a pioneer in undersea medicine first for the Air Force and now  at Texas A & M University, has published extensive research demonstrating profound improvements in Lyme disease patients treated with HBOT. These improvements include pain reduction, return of clarity of the mind, and reduction of depression.

Dr. Fife was active with the HydroLab saturation diving research program funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration having spent 28 days in saturation in the habitat performing physiology experiments.

The first uses of hydrox, a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is used as breathing gas in very deep diving are usually attributed to six ocean dive trials by the Swedish engineer, Arne Zetterstrom in 1945.  Dr. Fife later showed that hydrox would allow divers to descend and work at great depths.

Dr. Fife also developed the first decompression tables for the use of the mixture. The French engineering company COMEX later applied Fife’s work in developing their HYDRA dive series.

Much of his other diving medical research was focused on women in diving and spinal cord decompression sickness.

Fife’s interest in clinical hyperbaric medicine lead to several research projects to look for new indications for the use of HBOT. It has been estimated that about half of the 2,000 patient treatments done by his lab were for research.

These projects included the treatment of:

• squamous cell carcinoma in mice with hydrox;
• migraine headache;
• Post-polio syndrome.
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome;
• radionecrosis;
• brown recluse sites;
• non-union fractures;
• closed head injury;
• chronic Lyme disease.

In 1997, just after Dr. Fife retired from the Air Force, he began a year-long study at Texas A & M University about the benefits of treating Lyme disease with HBOT. A number of Chico, CA, Lyme patients traveled to Texas to take part in the study. Five of those patients showed such dramatic improvement after receiving HBOT that a group of Chico residents banded together in an effort to build a HBOT clinic closer to home. The Chico Hyperbaric Center is a result of that effort.

HBOT is a medical treatment that uses the administration of 100 percent oxygen at controlled pressure (greater than sea level) for a prescribed amount of time-usually 60 to 90 minutes. HBO therapy is commonly used to treat conditions such as burns and difficult or stubborn healing wounds.

HBOT increases the amount of oxygen in the body; which in turn causes several physiological changes that can result in accelerated healing. The basis for these changes is the fact that HBO therapy increases the amount of oxygen in the blood by up to 2000 percent, depending on the treatment depth. This, in turn, dramatically increases the amount of oxygen at the cellular level and creates other physiological changes. These changes can be extremely complex. One scientific research study indicates that Lyme bacteria are micro-aerophilic, or debilitated in high oxygen environments.

In the case of Lyme disease, William Fife, Ph. D., a Hyperbaric Medicine specialist at Texas A & M University (now retired), established the protocols for HBO treatment in his Texas A & M research project, to be discussed later. Dr. Fife’s Lyme disease protocol calls for HBO therapy to be administered at 2.36 ATA (Atmospheres absolute), or equivalent to a depth of 45 feet below sea level. Each treatment lasts one hour and two treatments are prescribed each day, five days per week.

The total number of treatments given in each case varies. It is common to administer 30 to 60 treatments in the first phase of treatment. The question of further HBOT therapy is then resolved after the patient’s condition is reevaluated. However, many believe that if the patient has been impacted by the first phase of HBOT, such as by experiencing a Herxheimer reaction (this can help to confirm Lyme bacteria die-off), then a break of three to six weeks should be taken followed by another 30 to 60 HBO treatments. A physician can prescribe more sets of HBOT based on the patient’s individual evaluation.

Working with Dr. Fife is Mitchell L. Hoggard is a pharmacist. He is also President and founder of the Chico Hyperbaric Center.

All three of his children have received HBO therapy for Lyme disease. Mitchell Hoggard’s son Ted was 14 years old when he took part in William Fife’s HBO research study on Lyme disease.

Are there risks?

HBO therapy is a medical procedure and like any other medical procedure, and there can be risks.

However, when HBOT is administered by trained health care individuals these risks are minimal.  As with any medical procedure, the evaluation and understanding of the current health status of the patient is of prime importance.  It is also critical that patients understand that HBOT does not work for everybody.

Minor ear discomfort is the most common inconvenience related to HBO therapy. It is helpful to remember that the initial stage of each HBO treatment is similar to sitting in an aircraft while it descends. Like the airline passenger, the patient’s ears have to adjust to a change in air pressure. The hyperbaric health care professional works with the patient or parent and teaches them various techniques on how to equalize pressure in the ears, such as swallowing.

If one cannot equalize the pressure in the ears, damage can occur to the eardrum. However, this is very rare. Some individuals who experience ear discomfort may require a procedure called a Myringotomy, or what is commonly called placing tubes in the ears. An ear, nose and throat specialist usually performs this outpatient procedure right in the doctor’s office.

Other complications can occur if a patient has lung abnormalities such as emphysema. However, with proper evaluation prior to HBOT treatment any concerns can be eliminated.

Why does HBO therapy show promise in helping Lyme patients?

First, we are reminded that Lyme bacteria are debilitated in high oxygen environments. Research by F. Austin demonstrated the effect of oxygen on the Lyme organism. The study suggests that the Bb organism is sensitive to high concentrations of oxygen at the cellular level, or what is termed, elevated tissue partial pressures.In other words, the Bb organism doesn’t do well in a biological environment similar to that created in the body during HBOT treatment.

It is also notable that in Dr. Fife’s study, all of the study’s participants were veterans of antibiotic therapy. These were adults and children who had tried and failed antibiotic therapy, including the big gun in the antibiotic arsenal: intravenous antibiotics. It appeared that the study had chosen the most difficult subjects to test. These were Lyme patients with chronic symptoms and most of them probably had nothing to lose. The fact that 85 percent of these Lyme patients showed improvement seems remarkable.

There are other benefits of HBOT that may play a role in treating Lyme disease, but were not mentioned in the Texas A & M study. Some of these benefits are theoretical and not proven; others are well known and considered established fact in Hyperbaric Medicine. Many of these additional benefits are based on the belief that HBO therapy and antibiotic therapy work in a synergistic manner. In this context, synergistic is defined as the combination of both treatments (HBOT and antibiotic therapy) being greater than the effect of either one alone.

Antibiotics and the immune system might not be able to adversely affect (or kill) Lyme bacteria for two distinct reasons.

First, it is believed that the Bb organism is able to switch from an active to a dormant (or sleeping mode) by coating itself in the body’s protein.

Secondly it is believed that the Bb organism can hide in the body’s cells.

Both tactics may result in the immune system failing to react to the Bb organism as a foreign organism that should be destroyed. Some believe that this has the effect of neutralizing the body’s defensive mechanisms and the offensive mechanisms employed by antibiotics.

The benefits of HBOT appear to be promising, although determining the exact mechanism of action that occurs in HBOT remains the most important aspect in the development of a reliable “cure”.

In general, a better understanding of the Lyme bacterium will enable us to develop new and better methods of treating this devastating disease.

Early into my diagnosis, I begged my doctor to give me subscription drugs to manage the frightening rage and frustration taking over my fragile central nervous system.

In those early months I spent a lot of time reading other people’s experience with Lyme; and I remember the horror I felt reading about a woman who had been pushed around in the medical system and eventually blew up in uncontrollable frustration screaming, “I have Lyme!  I have Lyme!” and her neighbors called the police who had to physically confine her.

To make a long story short, she spent weeks incarcerated in a state mental hospital and managed to get released only because an employee of the facility recognized her symptoms and became her advocate to get the right medical help.

How many others are incarcerated improperly?

How many flare up in rage hurting others due to lack of medical attention?

Last fall on an average Sunday in southern Illinois, near St. Louis, there was a tragic event that many ascribe to Lyme disease.  One (obviously mentally ill) man walked into a church and killed the pastor and wounded 2 others before he was taken down by church members.

He is alive and went to jail.

The twist on this story is that his defense attorney and family claim he contracted Lyme disease from a tick bite, and this caused neurological damage which led to many violent outbursts.  His appointment book wrote “death day”.  He apparently had enough ammunition to kill up to 30, but miraculously the gun jammed and he only fired 4 times.

But has this conclusion been confirmed by medical authorities?

Was he using the Lyme Epidemic as a defense strategy to stay out of jail?

Have licensed medical doctors supported his claims and the additional symptom that those of us with neurological Lyme disease need to add to our symptom list?

In an article by Dr. Robert Bransfield, “Aggression and Violence” relates the following episodes as evidence that Lyme disease can, and does cause violent behavior:

Several years ago I admitted a patient with Lyme disease (LD) to a psychiatric unit. He was para­noid and assaulted five police officers in an episode of rage. During the hospital stay, the patient went to the river behind the hospital to watch the Fourth of July fireworks display. When the fireworks began, the patient jumped into the river. It appeared the loud noise was responsible for an acoustic startle reaction.

“At the same time, a female patient with LD was also on the unit. She described puzzling symp­toms that consisted of episodes of rage and intrusive, horrific homicidal images. In both cases, the aggres­sive tendencies improved with treatment.

“In reviewing cases involving LD patients, another patient described an incident where some­one else pulled into a parking space that he wanted. Jumping out of his car, he knocked the other driver unconscious.

“Still another patient stated he was driv­ing on the highway when a motorist beeped their horn. He lunged out of his car and began pounding on the windshield of the car, then suddenly stopped in bewilderment because he did not understand or recall why he was behaving in this manner.

“A female patient was arrested for shoplifting during a state of confusion. Another patient was accused of pedophilia. I can cite many more examples. When we look at cases of aggression associated with LD, were all of these cases merely a coincidence or a causal relationship between LD and some of this aggressive behavior?

“Adler methodically interviewing hundreds of patients over a period of years, it was clear that cer­tain patterns were emerging. The same problems were being seen in too many patients. A causal link was becoming increasing apparent.

“I would like to em­phasize that the vast majority of patients who know they have LD are not violent. It is not my intention to draw attention to an issue that further increases the stigma that LD patients already receive. However, it is my intention to methodically look at the association that does seem to exist between LD and aggressive behavior in a minority of chronic LD patients.”

Additionally Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist and FOX News Channel contributor wrote, “Chronic Lyme disease can be associated with seizures, depression, anxiety and even psychosis has been reported,”he said.

“It’s possible, but the problem is, something being reported doesn’t always mean it’s the cause. For example, someone may have psychosis or seizures — but Lyme disease may or may not be the cause — so you have to be really careful.”

The fact is that Lyme disease is very tricky.

“Determining whether Lyme disease is the cause of a related factor is the art of medicine,” Siegel said. “It’s not an automatic — it depends on the case.”

Siegel told FOXNews.com that he would actually like to see the medical records of Sedlacek to to see if psychosis is even a possibility.

“It would depend on if the person has chronic Lyme disease,” he said. “You would have to look at medical records to see when he was treated and diagnosed and to see if this is even a possibility. The key question here is whether this guy ever received proper treatment early on.”

Of course the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, refrain from mentioning the chronic aspect of Lyme disease, and other than very extreme cases do they concede Lyme disease can present a long list of symptoms and the problems that occur with neuro-Lyme.

For more information on this topic read “Emerging Diseases.” by Pamela Weintraub

When those who are friends and family watch you suffer year after year, it is only natural that they would want to help out.  Sometimes it is snake oil, and sometimes it is a little known treatment that can really make a difference.

My brother-in-law told me about cinnamon and honey over the Christmas holidays (at which time I was struggling to participate for the first time in 3 years), and I promised him I would look into it, and when I promise, I follow through even if it takes some time.

The combination of honey and cinnamon has been used in both oriental and Ayuvedic medicine for centuries.

I found it fascinating when I learned that honey has been found in edible condition thousands of years later in Egyptian tombs.  And cinnamon is one of the oldest spices known to mankind and  enjoyed  - according to literature - for just as long.

However, it is the combination of the two that give me hope for a natural curative for some of the symptoms of chronic Lyme disease.

Cinnamon’s essential oils mixed with an enzyme found in honey qualify the two “anti-microbial” foods with the ability to help stop the growth of bacteria as well as fungi. The enzyme from honey produces hydrogen peroxide and creates an ancient curative.

The combination has historically been used as one of the embalming agents, and as an alternatives to traditional food preservatives due to their effective anti-microbial properties.

Following is a partial list of the cures that can be attributed to the combination of honey and cinnamon:

ARTHRITIS: Arthritis patients may take daily, morning, and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be treated.

In a recent research study conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon honey and half teaspoon cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, almost all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis were able to walk without pain.

Also, a paste should be made from one part honey and two parts of luke warm water added with a small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. This paste should be massaged on the itching part of the body and the pain should recede within fifteen minutes in most cases.

HAIR LOSS OR BALDNESS: For hair loss or baldness, patients may apply a paste made out of hot olive oil, one tablespoon of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon powder. This should be applied before they take bath and keep it for approximately 15 minutes. After that they can wash it off with luke warm water.

REDUCING CHOLESTEROL: Take two tablespoons of honey, three teaspoons of cinnamon powder and mix in 16 ounces of tea, when given to a cholesterol patient, reduces the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10% within 2 hours..

COLDS: For those who are suffering from common or severe colds, they should take one tablespoon of luke warm honey with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon powder daily for 3 days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold and clear the sinuses.

INFERTILITY: Various ancient medical streams like Ayurveda and Yunani have been using honey for years in medicine to strengthen the semen of men. Two tablespoons of honey before they go to sleep is what is prescribed by many experienced practitioners. This combination will work wonders for women as well. In China, Japan and other Asian countries, if the women who do not conceive, and or if their uterus is weak, then they have been prescribed cinnamon powder. Women who cannot conceive may take a pinch of cinnamon powder in half a teaspoon of honey, and apply it on the gums frequently throughout the day, so that it slowly mixes with the saliva and enters the body.

STOMACH UPSET:  Honey taken with cinnamon powder also helps in curing stomach ache. For people who are suffering from gas problems, honey should be taken with cinnamon powder in equal quantities, relieves gas and pain in the stomach.

LONGEVITY: Ancient cultures used Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder for longevity. 4 spoons of honey, 1 spoon of cinnamon powder and 3 cups of water are boiled to make this tea. The prescribed amount is to drink 1/4 cup, 3 times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and slows down old age.

HEART DISEASES: Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and may prevent the patient from suffering another heart attack.

Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada, various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon help to revitalize the arteries and veins

BLADDER INFECTI ONS: Mix cinnamon powder and honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink.

TOOTHACHE: Apply a paste of cinnamon powder and honey and on the aching tooth.

PIMPLES: Mix honey with cinnamon powder and apply paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash away the next morning.

BAD BREATH: Gargle with honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water so that breath stays fresh throughout the day.

I find that the most important health benefits we can utilize is to boost the immune system, boost energy and to help with weight loss which occurs due to medications and/or lack of activity.

IMMUNE SYSTEM:  Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacteria and viral diseases.

WEIGHT LOSS:  Drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup water first thing in the morning (empty stomach). If taken regularly it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also drinking of this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body, even though the person may eat a high calorie diet. Weight loss can be due to different reasons.

Some people do over dieting to reduce weight which affects their body’s immune system. Losing weight is fine but that should not be at the expense of harsh dieting and skipping your vitamins and minerals. You can always lose weight naturally.

FATIGUE: Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, have been found to be more alert and flexible.

Some doctors claim that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.

So skip the sugar which feeds Lyme and use honey instead!

Believe it or not, according to a press release in Cell & Microbe, a group of Yale scientists may have blown the door off the frustrating tangle of vaccine ideas to protect the populace from Lyme disease.  They have found a protein found in the saliva of ticks helps protect mice from developing Lyme disease.

Traditionally, vaccines have directly targeted specific pathogens. This is the first time that antibodies against a protein in the saliva of a pathogen’s transmitting agent (in this case, the tick) has been shown to confer immunity when administered protectively as a vaccine.

Lyme, as we know, is transmitted by ticks. When it moves through the tick, it is coated with a tick salivary protein known as Salp15. The Yale team injected Salp15 into healthy mice and found that it significantly protected the mice from getting Lyme disease. When combined with outer surface proteins of B. burgdorferi, the protection was even greater.

Lead author Erol Fikrig, M.D. of Yale School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute said, “The interaction between the Lyme disease agent and ticks is very complex, and the bacteria uses a tick salivary protein to facilitate infection of the mammalian host. By interfering with this important interaction, we can influence infection by the Lyme disease agent.”

Several years ago there was a Lyme vaccine on the market that utilized just the outer surface proteins of the bacteria. It was taken off the market in 2002 due to the terrible side effects for those who had already been exposed to Lyme, and to date no other antigen has been tested in phase III clinical trials.

The authors believe this new strategy of targeting the saliva - the “vector molecule” that a microbe requires to infect a host - may be applicable not just to Lyme disease but to other insect-borne pathogens that also cause human illness.

“We believe that it is likely that many arthropod-borne infection agents of medical importance use vector proteins as they move to the mammalian host,” Fikrig explained. “If so, then this paradigm, described with the Lyme disease agent, is likely to be applicable to these illnesses. Currently, we are working to determine if this strategy is likely to be important for West Nile virus infection, dengue fever, and malaria, among other diseases.”

Other researchers were Jianfeng Dai, Penghua Wang, Sarojini Adusumilli, Carmen J. Booth and Sukanya Narasimhan of Yale School of Medicine, and Juan Anguita of the University of Massachusetts. This work was support by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

It seems that we could truly be close to a powerful new Lyme vaccine.

I hope that this blog does not read like a medical “doctor bashing” blog, it is not meant to be, in fact the “Chronic Lyme Disease Controversy” has identified some truly heroic medical doctors.  Although I firmly believe that our ultimate salvation (in terms of chronic Lyme disease) will come from the scientists who are studying the bacteria rather than the medical doctors who tend to be bound by this or that Association that governs their specialty.

However, one glaring danger that I am finally waking up to is the private and public labs who handle the actual germs and race to publish hoping for bigger and better grants through the merit of their writing.

It is only human nature that creates power struggles within groups.  The bigger the group, the bigger the power struggle.

So while it can, and DOES make us feel betrayed at times, it is especially harmful when it comes to matters of life and death.

At the core of my fear and warning, is the possibility that the numerous biolabs that deal with Lyme disease are infected with the same human nature.

The following article about bio-labs was published by Huffington Post and written by Barton Kustler, PhD in November of 2009.

Earlier this year, during an audit of the nation’s largest Level-4 Bio Safety Lab (BSL-4) at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Maryland, 9,220 vials of ebola, anthrax, botulinum, equine encephalitis virus, and other deadly germs were discovered in the proverbial dusty old storage area.

No one even knew the vials existed and thus no one knows for sure whether any are missing.

But not to worry, according to officials. The vials were old and lost long before new documentation procedures were put in place.  Besides, the lab is being expanded and updated with the latest security devices.

Such reassuring mantras resound after every oil and chemical spill, radioactive discharge from nuclear power plant (more frequent than generally realized), black-market uranium sale, and mishandled nuclear bomb: “It may seem dangerous, but trust us - there wasn’t enough poison to hurt a fly and besides, we’re sure we recovered everything.”

Very likely - hopefully - at Fort Detrick they did. But the most important question remains unanswered: can any BSL-4, the labs with the deadliest, often highly contagious, bacteria and viruses, ever be truly fail-safe? After all, at some point that old storeroom in Fort Detrick was state-of-the-art.

Human error applies not only to daily procedures, but to equipment that always seems so pristine when new. Proponents of BSL-4s argue that without these research labs we stand defenseless against a natural outbreak of disease or bio-terrorist attack. And, they say, the labs are so safe that the chances of a disease-spreading breach approach zero.

The problem is, neither of these assertions is strictly true. Vaccines against Level-4 Ebola and Marburg viruses have been developed in Level-2 labs by inserting their DNA into non-pathogenic viruses that can trigger immune responses just as definitively as the deadly pathogen.

Scientists can therefore develop vaccines against deadly bacteria and viruses without actually handling the germs themselves. And the Level-4 labs may very well make our world more dangerous rather than safer and more secure. However modern and up-to-date a laboratory, it is still subject to human error, violence, neglect, and systemic breakdown.

The Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak in Great Britain in 2007 was due, according to the British government’s inquiry, to “poor training and incompetence” and a “creeping degradation of standards”, while the 2001 outbreak was attributed by the government to an employee who smuggled out a vial of FMD from his lab.

“Creeping degradation” is probably responsible for most industrial and infrastructural accidents. The case of Plum Island off the northeast coast of Long Island, New York, home to a now-closed Level-4 lab, illustrates the problem. Many believe Plum Island responsible for Lyme Disease, borne by deer swimming five miles from the island to the Connecticut coast near Lyme where the first outbreaks occurred. Lab 257 by Michael Carroll details how protocols and procedures at Plum Island eventually unraveled.

Countless small oversights and flaws in equipment, procedures, and human judgment tend to build up over time to generate distinct vulnerabilities until an otherwise controllable opportunistic event spins out of control.

It is often claimed that BSL-4s have a flawless safety record, although the 9,220 recovered vials seem to undermine that claim. More importantly, only two Level-4 labs have operated in the United States until recently and their documentation has been in disarray, as Fort Detrick’s spokesperson admitted to explain how the vials went missing.

There is, in fact, no real documentation that BSL-4 labs have been operating safely. As with the oft-ignored low-level radioactive releases from nuclear power plants, small accidents can be ignored or covered up; it takes a major disaster to enter public consciousness.

Recently, the city of Boston had to admit that the news of the infection of three BSL-2 lab workers in a lab had been suppressed by the lab and city officials. Mayor Menino assured us that if the public had been in danger, they would have told us sooner. Granted, Level-2 labs are not built to be foolproof and the diseases harbored there are far milder than in BSL-4s, but when infection at a BSL-2 is kept under wraps, would a more serious threat have been publicized, especially with no real emergency response mechanism in place in most communities?

According to the Sunshine Project, “Three Texas A&M University biodefense researchers were infected with the biological weapons agent Q Fever in 2006. The infections were confirmed in April of that year, but Texas A&M officials did not report them to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), as required by law. Instead, Texas A&M officials covered the infections up until now, illegally failing to disclose them despite freedom of information requests dating back to October 2006.” This was in addition to a brucella infection at the lab, news of which was also withheld from the public.

In response to these events, the Center for Disease Control ordered the lab to shut down its bioweapons research, citing - in a detailed report issued August 31, 2007 - a host of violations of basic safety protocols at the lab. Other accidents at BSL-3s have recently occurred at the University of New Mexico (anthrax, 2003 and unidentified pathogen in 2004); Medical University of Ohio (2004, Level-3 Valley Fever); University of Chicago (2005, Level 3, possibly anthrax or plague); and UC Berkeley (2005, Level 3 aerosolized, weaponized Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever). From 2005-2006, University of Wisconsin at Madison (UW) researchers made and manipulated copies of the Ebola virus genome even though the federal government stipulates that such research must take place at a BSL-4. (It should be noted that Level-3 pathogens can be every bit as dangerous as Level 4s and include many of the more contagious germs; it’s just they’ve been shown to respond to antibiotics).

All these cases occurred after 2001, when the through-the-mail anthrax attacks supposedly led to tighter security and more sophisticated protocols at BSL-3s and BSL-4s.

The dangers posed by biolabs often fly under the radar, but that may be changing.

The General Accounting Office, in a report released this past September 21st, stated that the rapid - and often unregulated - proliferation of Level 3 and Level 4 labs places the public at significant risk.

As the late Dr. John C. Knowles,  president of the Rockefeller Foundation once said, “The American Medical Association operating from a platform of negative vigilance presents no solutions but busily fights each change and then loudly supports it against the next proposal.”

For most of us, medical care has been taken for granted, and the authority of licensed medical practitioners unquestioned.

When you or I go to our family doctor who correctly suspects some type of infection, the medical protocol is for the licensed doctor to consult the accepted procedures as outlined in the enormous IDSA’s (Infectious Disease Society of America), and then follow the protocol with confidence.

Unfortunately for those of us with chronic Lyme disease; all of our symptoms, the intense unbearable pain and the clear evidence of disease - the IDSA does not acknowledge the existence of chronic Lyme disease. The IDSA guidelines are clearly no longer appropriate for handling Lyme disease due to the mounting evidence of the morphic and antibiotic-resistant disease.  Well, it took the medical community a long time to figure out Lyme’s cousin, syphilis, too.

So after mounting political pressure in Connecticut, the Attorney General, as most of you are aware, required the guidelines to be re-written due to obvious conflict of interest amongst the ruling committee.

A quote from the Attorney General Blumenfeld:

“The IDSA’s Lyme guideline process lacked important procedural safeguards requiring complete reevaluation of the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines — in effect a comprehensive reassessment through a new panel. The new panel will accept and analyze all evidence, including divergent opinion. An independent neutral ombudsman — expert in medical ethics and conflicts of interest, selected by both the IDSA and my office — will assess the new panel for conflicts of interests and ensure its integrity.”

Blumenthal’s findings include the following:

• The IDSA failed to conduct a conflicts of interest review for any of the panelists prior to their appointment to the 2006 Lyme disease guideline panel;
• Subsequent disclosures demonstrate that several of the 2006 Lyme disease panelists had conflicts of interest;
• The IDSA failed to follow its own procedures for appointing the 2006 panel chairman and members, enabling the chairman, who held a bias regarding the existence of chronic Lyme, to handpick a likeminded panel without scrutiny by or formal approval of the IDSA’s oversight committee;
• The IDSA’s 2000 and 2006 Lyme disease panels refused to accept or meaningfully consider information regarding the existence of chronic Lyme disease, once removing a panelist from the 2000 panel who dissented from the group’s position on chronic Lyme disease to achieve “consensus”;
• The IDSA blocked appointment of scientists and physicians with divergent views on chronic Lyme who sought to serve on the 2006 guidelines panel by informing them that the panel was fully staffed, even though it was later expanded;
• The IDSA portrayed another medical association’s Lyme disease guidelines as corroborating its own when it knew that the two panels shared several authors, including the chairmen of both groups, and were working on guidelines at the same time. In allowing its panelists to serve on both groups at the same time, IDSA violated its own conflicts of interest policy.

IDSA has reached an agreement with Blumenthal’s office calling for creation of a review panel to thoroughly scrutinize the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines and update or revise them if necessary. The panel — comprised of individuals without conflicts of interest — will comprehensively review medical and scientific evidence and hold a scientific hearing to provide a forum for additional evidence. It will then determine whether each recommendation in the 2006 Lyme disease guidelines is justified by the evidence or needs revision or updating.

However, the deadline for these revisions has already passed, and insiders are warning not to expect any major changes.  We all want to hope, but there is little reason for hope in the face of reality.

As Voltaire once said,

“Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little,

to cure diseases of which they know less,

in human beings of whom they know nothing.”

One of the most devastating aspects of contracting Lyme disease today is the absence of a reliable test to diagnose Lyme and/or many of the co-infections that contribute to unnecessary suffering and mental anguish.

If you are bitten, the current protocol for doctors is to test the blood for antibodies using the ELISA test - which even some of the proponents of this system will admit to an 80% error rate.  Then, IF you have a positive ELISA the protocol is to take a Western Blot which is far more accurate than the ELISA in evaluating the number of antibodies but still very unreliable for those who have chronic Lyme (regardless of how many clinical manifestations are present.)

Well, a great stride towards positive diagnosis for Lyme disease may be just around the corner!

Business Wire has recently announced promising developments regarding the diagnosis of  certain types of cancer that prove to be indicative of Lyme disease as well.

Multimmune GmbH and Boulder Diagnostics Inc. have jointly announced the development of an HSP70 lateral flow point of care test.

Multimmune has discovered that many tumor types display the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) on the cell surface. Multimmune is exploiting this signal for directed immune therapy to cure cancers.

The HSP70 lateral flow point of care test is being developed to test for elevated HSP70 levels in the blood of cancer patients and to evaluate the correlation of this occurrence with the presence of the tumor specific HSP70 cell surface marker. Boulder Diagnostics Inc. draws on its leading competence in lateral flow assay development to develop the HSP70 point of care test.

“The HSP70 point of care test will help us more rapidly to advance the important concept of tumor therapy against HSP70 expressing cancers”, comments Claus Botzler, Managing Director of Multimmune GmbH.

“We are excited to apply our extensive lateral flow assay development expertise to this novel and important diagnostic opportunity”, states Dede Willis, Chief Operating Officer of Boulder Diagnostics Inc.

Multimmune GmbH develops tumor therapies based on exploitation of tumor-specific cell surface markers.

They have advanced an ex vivo immune recruitment therapy against HSP70 displaying colon and lung cancers through clinical phase I, and have demonstrated pre-clinical proof of concept of an antibody therapeutic against HSP70 displaying tumors.

Their partner Boulder Diagnostics, is dedicated to the development of point of care lateral flow diagnostic assays, and is currently developing products to detect elevated homocysteine levels and for the diagnosis of Lyme disease.

There is fierce competition from research labs for grant money which will eventually turn the entire medical community “on its ears”, when the advancement of scientific understanding severs the wall of medical compliance with regards to diagnosing and treating chronic Lyme disease.

Jenna, I am so happy you included this article about Teasel.  My 17 year old daughter was plagued with chronic Lyme disease and neuroborreliosis, and we made many trips to the emergency room in the last two years because of meningitis-like symptoms.

Since we live in Texas, the state with no Lyme disease…HA!, the only course of treatment had been doxycycline, which we figured out was causing severe cerebral hypertension, and it was no longer an option for Katelynn.

I tried every homeopathic and herbal treatment I found that was helping other Lymies, and nothing would help my poor baby for any length of time.  She also has symptoms of bartonella, but her tests did not indicate it…oh surprise, surprise.

I read about a lady who had been cured 9 times from Lyme disease by using Teasel, and I listened to her testimony on You Tube and visited her website:  http://www.ladybarbara.net .  We corresponded, and what I found most interesting was the fact that the Teasel used most often was the Chinese species, dipsacus japonica, and THE SPECIES THAT SHE USED AND THAT REALLY DID THE HEALING WAS DIPSACUS SYLVESTRIS, the common weed found in the USA.  She sells it, and has links to other herbal sites that sell it as well.

Well, I started Katelynn on one drop under her tongue two or three times a day, and increased it to two drops twice a day, and then three drops twice a day.  She had a minor herx about 2 days after starting the single drops, and it was as if all her nerve endings came to the surface of her skin and felt like a mild stinging.  It lasted about 12 hours, and then faded away.

She got better and better physically, and for the first time in months, she actually attended school for a full week!!  (She has missed 39 days since late August when she started her senior year.)

She is still suffering from insomnia and has some tremors all over her body when she misses too many dosages of the teasel, but that is so minor compared to what she has been going through since her second tick bite in March of 2008.  TEASEL ROOT, IN THE FORM OF AN EXTRACT FROM DIPSACUS SYLVESTRIS, HAS BEEN THE MIRACLE CURE FOR KATELYNN.  I have been quiet about the speedy turn around in her health because I wanted to be sure the “healing” lasted…and it has.  She started Teasel on December 15th, so it really hasn’t been that long, but I couldn’t keep quiet any longer… ;~) LOL!

I hope you will try this little miracle remedy, Jenna.  You will not be sorry;  I’m sure!  God bless you for such a wonderful blog and for sharing all of your research with us.

With biggest blessings,

Molly Gentry

p.s.  Matthew Wood researched and used dipsacus sylvestris in all his teasel studies.  We had used a combination extract for Lyme that had Venus Flytrap, Teasel Japonica, and Parsley right after I read about teasel, but it didn’t help half as much as the sylvestris extract.  I don’t know why that is…it just is…

The best way to start the new year is to renew you belief in your own healing.

Most of us are so focused on our own unique Lyme; the swollen joints, the mental confusion (Lyme Fog) and every kind of pain that can be imagined.  But try, if you can, to watch your child go from a happy youth who fits in where ever he or she goes, to a virtual stranger - depressed, crying all the time…I have been there and would definitely take the pain away from my child than to watch he or she suffer.

So for the beginning of 2010, I received permission to share this happy story about Lyme, Teasel and a happy ending,